Heyl Finishes 12th in Men’s Kayak

Athens Olympian Brett Heyl (Norwich, Vt.) nearly qualifies for final round en route to a 12th-place finish, tops among the four American Kayakers in the Men’s K-1 division on a cold and cloudy day in the Czech capital. The first of three World Cups has concluded with the USA Canoe/Kayak (USA C/K) Slalom Team heading to the sunnier climate of Spain for World Cup No. 2 next weekend.

Heyl might have made the finals had it not been for a touch on a gate midway through his run. Two seconds worth of penalty resulted in a time of 97.76, 3.42 seconds behind the first place finisher in the semifinal eight tenths of a second out of the top ten and final round. Daniele Molmenti of Italy took home the gold medal.

“It was not the result I was looking for, but I went for it and just came up short,” Heyl said.

Scott Parsons (Silvania, Ohio) and Jim Wade (Atlanta, Ga.) ranked inside the top 10 through the heats but struggled in the semifinal to finish 33rd and 40th, respectively. Scott Mann (Woodstock, Vt.) received a controversial 50-second penalty in the second half of the course to finish 37th.

“The team proved they can certainly go fast, but there are still some areas where we have to improve,” Head Slalom Coach Silvan Poberaj said.

The next stop of the 2010 Canoe Slalom World Cup circuit is La Seu de Urgell, Spain, the slalom home during the Barcelona 1992 Olympic Games. USA C/K Executive Director Joe Jacobi won the gold medal on this course at the 1992 Games. The course, which was designed to be very technical, was also the site of the 2009 World Championships.

“It will be good to get to Seu and get in some solid training sessions in,” said Beijing Olympian and Men’s C-1 athlete Casey Eichfeld (Drums, Pa.) “I really like the course there and we can always count on the weather being nice.”

Prague represents the first stop on the three-city, three-week World Cup tour leading up to the Junior and Senior World Championships. For complete results and video of the ICF Canoe Slalom World Cup in Prague, visit http://www.slalomtroja.cz/en. Attached is the release in PDF form (or click here).

“I'm very proud of how the team stayed focused this week and prepared for their races,” said William Irving, USA C/K National Teams Director. “The team is already refocusing on competing in Seu and I expect for us to only get better as we work towards Worlds in Tacen, Slovenia.”

Tags: Canoe Slalom, US National Slalom Team